- Caroline Boswell: And there
were different strengths

of drink at this time.

You had small beer, which would
be a weaker beer,

often brewed by pouring
additional hot water

on top of the original mash
from the first brew.

You had middle beer,
which would be, you know,

the first batch of relatively
strong beer.

And then you had strong beer.

And this was really what we
would call high-gravity beer.

And of course, people at the
time drank all three kinds

depending on the time of day
it was.

You probably drank small beer
in the morning,

and then maybe middle
and strong beer

over the course of your day.

And a lot of it depended
on your occupation.

For a long time, historians
assumed that poor people

and especially day laborers,
perhaps farmhands,

drank only small beer,
but in fact,

they often drank strong beer
because,

part of the reason drink was
an everyday necessity

was that it's, as we know,
high in calories, right.

And so, actually,
landowners would fight

for the best farmhands by
offering the strongest beer

because that would actually
be part of your pay.

And this would be, you know,
legendary

or it would be passed down by
rumor that such-and-such a farm,

if you labored there, had the
strongest beer on offer.

And now, people have asked me,
well, how exactly was it

that people were able
to be productive

if they were drinking
particularly strong beer?

And that is a question

that historians have not quite
answered yet.

[audience laughing]

Let's talk a little bit,
something about the name.

Public house, they weren't owned
by the state,

despite the fact they're called
public houses.

They were public houses because
they were open to the public.

Right, and so, therefore,
they had to provide

very specific services
to be licensed.

And that's where the name "pub"
comes from.

It's a short version
of "public house."

They very specifically had
three different types

of drinking establishments.

They had inns, they had taverns,
and they had ale houses.

Inns were large establishments.

Innkeepers were relatively
wealthy.

Sometimes they even participated
in local politics.

And they catered to
a wealthier clientele.

You're not gonna find your dukes
or kings here.

The toffs don't go to where
the ordinary people hang out.

But still, you're gonna be
talking about

relatively wealthy people.

And they're gonna be
attending inns

largely because they need
sustenance, right,

and they need a place to stay.

So inns, in order to be
licensed,

obviously had to offer
accommodations to people.

They had to have stables,
which again,

suggests they're wealthy
clientele

if you can afford a horse.

And, of course, you had
to have food.

But additionally,
what people wanted

was access to private rooms.

Not just to sleep,
but to socialize

because they didn't necessarily
want to mix

with the general population

that might be attending the inn
at any given time.

And so, they very much cater to
a specific, more elite class

and as such they offer
more beverages

than, say, an ale house.

They're gonna offer wine
in addition to beer,

ale, and potentially cider
and perry,

depending on what part of
England you're in.

Taverns, again, catered to
relatively well-to-do,

as they would call them, people
in the early modern period.

They specifically sold wine,

though you could, of course,
purchase beer there as well,

but you went to the tavern
to purchase wine.

And wine was more expensive
in England than beer

because it was not produced
there.

And so, it was again,
wealthier merchants

who would be able
to afford this.

So they're largely going there
to purchase their wine.

And in fact, sometimes
you would go

just to simply purchase it
and take it home, right,

because most people did not make
their own wine.

In fact, the vast majority
of people did not.

Taverns, much like inns,

also had to offer a degree
of accommodations,

though that wasn't their primary
purpose like an inn.

The lowest and most prolific
of all of these

kind of drinking establishments
was the ale house.

Ale houses were far less
permanent structures

than taverns or inns.

Oftentimes, they were simply
someone's house

that had opened up
as an ale house

in part to supplement income.

But they were definitely much
smaller, less affluent places.

Their primary purpose, of
course, was to offer beer.

Originally they offered ale,

but ale had more or less
been replaced,

since ale is unhopped beer
in England.

This is the Medieval image

and you can see
what's going on here,

is this woman,
who is an ale wife,

right, she runs an ale house,

is welcoming her new customer,
who is clearly a monk,

he's quite thirsty,
very happy to see

that she has ale available
for him.

And how does he know this?

Well, at this time, if you were
going to sell ale

and you didn't do it regularly,

the way in which you signaled
the fact

that you had a fresh brew ready

was that you put the ale stake
at the top of your house.

Which in this case is this
broom, so it's an ale stake,

hanging out to signal to
passersby:

"Hey, we're open
for business today.

"Come on in, we've got
a fresh brew."

And this, obviously, is the
precursor to the pub sign,

right, which becomes a more
permanent fixture in the future.

But this was how ale houses
tended to operate

in the Medieval era.

Eventually, they'll become more
permanent structures,

but the illegal ones, kind of in
and out, as you might imagine,

depending on when they were
unearthed

by the local authorities.